The UNFCCC’s 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) will begin on Sunday and will see India seek to clarify the definition of climate finance and urge developed countries to increase the supply of technology and finance needed to address climate change and subsequent disasters. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will lead the Indian delegation to the conference to be held from November 6 to 8 in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh. The 198 parties to the UNFCCC meet once a year to discuss how to collectively address climate change.
US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and more than 100 heads of state are expected to attend the conference. It is not yet clear whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend. According to the Union Environment Ministry, India is looking forward to substantial progress in climate finance discussions and clarity in its definition. “As the saying goes, ‘what gets measured gets done’, there is a need for more clarity on the definition of climate finance for developing countries to be able to accurately assess the scope of financial flows for climate action,” the statement said. .
The absence of a definition allows developed countries to “green” their finances and issue loans for climate-related aid.”India will seek to clarify what constitutes climate finance, be it grants, loans or subsidies,” Jadav told reporters on Thursday. At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries pledged to collectively mobilize US$100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change, but unfortunately failed to do so. Along with other developing countries, India will increase pressure on rich countries to fulfill this promise. According to the Fourth Biennial Assessment of the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, total public financial support reported by developed countries as of October 2020 reached US$45.4 billion in 2017 and US$51.8 billion in 2018.
Rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target
Developing countries, including India, will also push rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target – also known as the new Collective Quantified Climate Finance Goal (NCQG) – which they say should be in the trillions as solutions and adaptation costs . to climate change have increased. “Any consensus on greater scale of financial mobilization could be a welcome takeaway from COP27,” said RR Rashmi, Distinguished Fellow, TERI and former UNFCCC climate negotiator.
“The figure of USD 100 billion for developing countries was agreed long before the Paris Agreement was signed. Based on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the total cumulative financing requirements of the developing world by 2030 are in the range of US$5.8 trillion to US$5.9 trillion,” Rashmi said. “The target of $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter until 2025 is still to be achieved. Due to a lack of common understanding, few estimates of what has happened in climate finance are available.
While the promised amount must be achieved as quickly as possible, there is now a need to substantially raise ambitions to ensure an adequate flow of resources under the new quantified target after 2024,” the Ministry of the Environment said. Poor and developing countries also want to see a new financial instrument to fund “losses and damages” from climate change – such as money needed to relocate people displaced by floods.
Developed countries have opposed this new fund, which will make them legally responsible for the huge damages caused by climate change. “Existing financial mechanisms such as the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund under the UNFCCC have not been able to mobilize or provide funding for climate change-related losses and damages,” the ministry said. India says the work program for increased ambition in mitigation and implementation cannot “alter the targets” set by the Paris Agreement.
New technologies and new ways
“The GST process and other mechanisms of the Paris Agreement, including expanded NDCs and submission of long-term low-emission development strategies, are sufficient. Best practices, new technologies and new ways of cooperation for technology transfer and capacity building can be fruitfully discussed in the mitigation work programme,” the ministry said. Rich countries seek to discuss Article 2.1 lit. c) The Paris Agreement, which refers to ensuring that all financial flows are in line with the “path to low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development” – meaning that funds are tied to low emissions. based on development.
India says that “achieving the target of USD 100 billion per annum must come first and developed countries must be asked to show a plan for the same. At the UN climate conference, India will also reiterate its call for all countries to join the LiFE movement – ‘Lifestyle for Environment’, a people-planet effort that seeks to shift the world from mindless and wasteful consumption to conscious and conscious use of natural resources.
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